Lesson's Learned from Jeremiah and Catherine's Wedding

This last weekend I was the best man at my friends Jeremiah and Catherine's wedding. When I wasn't trying to untie rings from the flower girl's basket, or chasing down the groom's boutonniere, or trying to figure out when I was supposed to walk the maid of honor out, I was snapping pictures and acting as a "backup photographer" (as Jerry kept calling me).

Shooting the wedding, even as a secondary photographer, was an interesting experience. The wedding was indoors and mood lit (read pitch black). Recording it really pushed my limits and skills. Because I was part of the ceremony, I didn't take any pictures during it, however I took my fair share before and after. Here are some lessons learned or reinforced, notes on the experience and some pictures I liked!


Lesson #1: A cool location can trump bad light.
This shot was the result of the groom exploring in the back while we waited for the ceremony to start. The light was that typical dim, bare bulb, "warehouse" florescent light that just gave everything a nasty green color. But, even if it had bad light, it did have a cool location . So we shot the picture. It is black and white, because I liked the texture of the brick; it is not black and white because I was salvaging it. In fact, out of the people who have seen both, the color version is more popular!


Lesson #2: Small mirrors are great compositional elements
Because you can get great reflections and still hide the camera!


Lesson #3: The spectators are interesting too
This is grooms mother and sister (who was also a bride's maid) watching the groom take formal pictures with his father. While the main photographer was taking the formals, I pointed my lens to capture them having fun watching.


Lesson #4: Move your feet
Lesson #5: Get low
I almost missed this shot. The music started and the bride and groom hit the dance floor for their first dance, so I started taking pictures including the one at the top of this article. These were cool, but after taking 5 or 6 I was looking for something different. At this point I noticed the disco ball and worked my way around to include it and the only way to get the ball and the couple to fit was to drop down really low.


Lesson #6: Backlighting is awesome
Stuff like this you can't plan. The light coming through her veil is the "annoying-auto-focus-doesn't-work-in-the-dark" light from the main photographer's camera. Note, unless I really need it, I do my best not to use this light. This might be the only time I have had one of these lights pointed my way and not been annoyed by it.


Lesson #7: Candids only happen if your subject doesn't realize you are taking a picture
I was taking a picture of the fountain and one of the bride's maids came up, ducking so as not to ruin my picture. I assured her that she hadn't and she went about covering this berry with chocolate, while I went about finishing up taking that picture of a chocolate fountain.

In the end, weddings are pretty cool to shoot and I quite enjoyed watching my good friend get married.

Congratulation's Jerry and Catherine and best wishes in your new life together!

Mystery Film

I'm sorry for the lack of posts in recent weeks, life has been hectic lately. I'm putting up more content over these next few days. Just because life has been hectic doesn't mean I stopped taking pictures! In fact, I have a BILLION photos I need to post. Well not a billion, but I have some!

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A little more then a week ago, I got hit by the film bug. That is to say, I was dying to experience the joy that is film - it's larger range, the ability to hand it to a lab and get the processing done, the joy of flipping through pictures without thinking about how to process them. So, last Saturday, I reached for one of my film cameras and wandered out to take some pictures.

First thing was to decide which film camera to use. There were two options, I could go with the Holga or I could go with the Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL (a decent camera in 1968). I opted for the Mamiya, as the Holga just seemed too..."holga-ish"? So, I grabbed the camera and discovered, much to my dismay, that the little watch batteries that power the meter had died. So, I decided what the heck, I'll sunny-16 it and wing the rest.

I finished off the roll that was in there (and started a new one), took it to be developed and thought "I don't really know what else is on that roll". So when I picked it up I was pleasantly surprised that I had pictures ranging from the last year and a half. I quite like the way these turned out and am quite hopeful that the current roll of film doesn't take that long to finish.

So with out further ado, here are some highlights!

Union Station

I think this is my favorite spot to take pictures of union station. Between the tracks guiding you into the station, the dramatic angles the location offers and having the view of an arriving train, its odd to me that I haven't seen more photos from this spot.

Perhaps it's that pesky "No Trespassing" sign...

This is fifteen of fifteen for my "One a day" project. Most posts were on time. A handful (including this one) we're late (but not too late!). All in all, I think that it's been a success and I fully intend to keep up the semi-constant posting of pictures here.

So what does the future hold? Several more pictures are already heading this way and will be up soon enough. Also, I have a couple of "how to" articles in various stages of development. Look for "Quality Photography on the Cheep: A 'How To' for the Hobbyist" and "Digital Post Processing (Without Breaking the Bank!)" coming soon! If you have ideas for other articles or things you'd like to see here, let me know! Either leave me a comment on this post or hit up my contact section.

It's been a fun little project, hope you enjoyed it!

Sunset Over Cape Lookout

The was a "oops we read the map wrong and there is no way what-so-ever that we can hike out to the cape and take sunset pictures so we should pull over at this viewpoint and grab the shot thats there rather then hike forever in the mud and in the dark only to not take any pictures at all cause we will have missed it" picture.

Lake Selmac

This is a nice little lake in southern Oregon, where we pulled off to take a break during a road trip. As we pulled over, the setting sun was bathing the snow covered hills in warm light. So I started walking along to lake, looking for a good spot. Eventually I found this place, but in order to get some kind of foreground I ended up having to take the shot laying back on the ground. Fortunately, I was able to frame a shot with out my foot in it!

Sunset at the Beach

Contemplating

After a couple tasty, Full Sail (made in this pub, woohoo!) beers, I decided to try my luck at taking an "action shot" of the business at the bar. Unfortunately, they really sucked. After regaining my confidence, I decided to try a shot of this unsuspecting bar patron. Which came out much, MUCH better then the previous shots. I like a couple of things about this shot, aside from just the overall. I really like the blur of the waitress working at the bar and I quite like that the "unsuspecting stranger" didn't move over the course of the 12 second exposure.

This was taken at the always classy Full Sail Pilsner Room at McCormick and Schmick's at Riverplace.